Some safety equipment hearing protection devices, such as passive noise reduction earmuffs, also have speakers included therein (for example, for communication and/or entertainment functions). However, it makes no sense to protect a user from external noise which might cause hearing damage or loss, while simultaneously allowing the speakers to broadcast at such a high sound level that they may cause damage to the user's hearing. Thus, there may be a need to limit speaker output to safe levels.
Current solutions for this type of issue typically rely on adding resistors to the circuitry (for example, between the amplifier and the speaker). This approach is often used to account for the pre-set resistance levels of off-the-shelf speakers, which have ratings that are not mated to any specific amplifier's output. But, this approach typically may not allow for precise capping of the sound emitted by the speaker. Additionally, this type of approach may take up more space in the earcup of the earmuff, thereby inadvertently impacting the noise reduction rating of the earcup (which, after all, is typically the most important aspect of a hearing protection earcup). And clearly, such an approach may also complicate manufacturing with additional steps, and may lead to increased scrap rates and field failures. The presently disclosed embodiments relate to improved hearing protection earcups, for example having customized speakers which may be specifically mated to match amplifier output, and may address one or more of the issues of the current approach.